Through your generous donations, Art Will Save The World hosts lessons, contests, critiques, and workshops at public schools. We currently serve over 1000 students per month at Colors of Cambodia, the birthplace and pilot program of Art Will Save The World, and countless more through the instructional videos we share with organizations around the world.
We’ve been running Colors of Cambodia since 1999, and set up our first official outpost in 2003 in Siem Reap. The program is currently run entirely by former students of the program, many of whom have also gone on to become professional artists, alongside guest teachers - international and local professional artists. We provide both a space to learn and grow, as well as a space for and the encouragement around the serious study of Art.
Astounded by the impact of Colors of Cambodia, and how it this has reached far and wide throughout the world, we are now committed to sharing our teachings with schools around the world.
Our Mission is to provide free arts education, free arts materials, and a safe space to explore making art for all children around the world.
Past, Present & Future
The seeds of Art Will Save The World began in 1999, when founder Bill Gentry first shared his love of art with children in rural Cambodian schools. By 2003, a dedicated school and gallery opened in Siem Reap, expanding access to free art education. Two decades later, in January 2023, the program relocated to a larger space where students now explore not only painting and drawing, but also music, performance, sculpture, and graphic arts, and serves over 1000 children per month. The program in Siem Reap has seen hundreds of young people write a better future for themselves through the practice of art.
Throughout the years, we have partnered with and donated to countless foundations and organizations around the world that work to serve children through the arts. Now, after seeing the profound effects of our methodologies over 20 years of teaching, we are determined to share our program with as many organizations around the world as we can.
Want to help teach kids art for free? We look forward to hearing from you. Shoot us an email at hello@artwillsavetheworld.org.
“I got the idea to teach art to youngsters on my first trip into Cambodia. It was 1999. I went to a rural school outside Siem Reap that was tragically under financed. There I witnessed exceptionally talented children just drawing away in their spare time, joyous and free, and budding with potential. What if they actually had the chance to get real training, I thought? Could it make a difference to their lives? I looked at my own life and I concluded Art, and learning all the integral aspects, was truly valuable, no matter what one did with their future.
I was educated at the University of Indiana in Fine Arts, and I’d been in and out of the art world showing my art almost all my life. I could help! I asked the headmaster of the school if he liked the idea of me offering art classes, and he said yes, please come! This was the beginning of The Colors of Cambodia. There was no grand plan, no master intervention from another galaxy. It was just me feeling good, teaching kids a skill and seeing the light of hope and passion igniting in their eyes.
After a few years, with my families’ help, we bought a building in the center of Siem Reap City. On the first floor we created a class room surrounded by a gallery of the children’s work. It was immediately a success! Across the top of the building we wrote “Art Will Save The World”, for no other reason then it sounded and felt good. It became our rallying cry and our motto…. and it remains such today!!
Many of the young people we’ve provided this space for over the years have built successful careers as artists, graphic designers, tattoo creators, and in many cases become art teachers themselves. But it is more than art that fosters this, it is the community that was built around it, and the values we prioritize at the school - patience and tenacity, courage and determination, ambition and planning - have a goal, make a plan, and work at it daily, year after year! You will find success!”
